Spelling

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT SPELLING - PAGE 5

I haven't done a cartoon yet about that anti-Christ preacher in Florida who burned the Quran, which raises a complaint. Why can't we all agree on how to spell a word? "Koran" seems to make the most sense to me, but so does Core-ann. Don't get me started on Gadhafi. Who decides these things? I picture an underground bunker with a secret entrance where scholars dressed in black robes flip a coin and then throw darts at the same words with different spelling. Another question: will misspelling the Quran cause more pious Muslims to riot and kill innocent people in far off countries?

Q. Is it ever correct to spell "all right" as one word ("alright")? -- Bill Ward, Simsbury A. The little, lost puppy "Alright" sits whimpering at the doorway of standard English, begging to be let in. And just when some sympathetic descriptivist opens the door, a persnickety prescriptivist boots the poor pup away. After all, sniffs the spurned "Alright," other combined forms of "all," such as "altogether" and "already," are altogether acceptable. Even esteemed writers such as James Joyce, Langston Hughes and Gertrude Stein have used "alright."

When readers spot a grammar or spelling error in a newspaper, they often ask me, "Doesn't anyone proofread anymore?" In fact, most newspapers today don't employ proofreaders in the classic sense -- people who scrutinize printed "proofs" of newspaper stories, circling errors and drawing funny hieroglyphics over words. In today's newsroom, copy editors work at computer screens to check stories for accuracy and clarity as well as for grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling. Given the high volume of words that pass by copy editors' eyes and the speed with which these unsung heroes and heroines are forced to work (Can you tell that I depend on these folks to catch errors in my column?

A writing workshop will be held tonight for parents unsure of how to help their students with homework. The workshop will be led by Betty Hastings, a writing consultant with The Center for Effective Communication, in Andover, Mass. Hastings has worked extensively with Enfield schoolteachers and will talk to parents about promoting writing at home. The workshop targets students in kindergarten through sixth grade, but parents of all students in town are invited. It will be held in the Thomas Alcorn School cafeteria at 7 p.m. Hastings will show parents what goes on in class and how papers are graded and analyzed, said Elizabeth Trapanese, a reading and language arts consultant for Enfield's public schools.

In his last regular sitcom gig, "The Mullets," John O'Hurley played a game-show host. No wonder the West Hartford native, best known for his portrayal of J. Peterman on "Seinfeld," rises to the occasion as host of "The Great American Celebrity Spelling Bee" (Fox, 8 p.m.). Tall, with the kind of premature gray suited for Bob Barker, O'Hurley stands on a podium to even better serve his theatrical voice, rising, swooping and commanding as he ekes out the letters from a group of B-list stars.

Kevin Fox is all right once the spelling starts. The torturous part is getting to that first word, letting it slip into his brain and the letters bubble out in the right sequence. There is order in those words and letters -- each spelled in the same way, every time -- an order that Kevin can find elusive in the everyday world. The auditorium at Fairfield High School Saturday was filled with the clamor of excited conversation as several hundred people waited for the 18th annual state spelling championship, sponsored by the Connecticut Junior Women Inc., to begin.

By ROB KYFF Rob Kyff is a teacher and writer in West Hartford., September 2, 1998

Many of you probably think of me as a pillar of linguistic virtue, a columnist who's Doric in his verbal perfection. Alas, poor Doric. It's time for true confessions. Here are some grammatical, usage and spelling mistakes I've made during my checkered career as a student, writer and teacher. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Experience keeps a dear school, but a fool will learn in no other." Speaking of school, as a college sophomore, I wrote a profound, sophisticated paper contrasting Rip Van Winkle and Benjamin Franklin as American archetypes.

Which of these words is misspelled?: "restauranteur," "tendonitis" or "sacreligious." In fact, they're all misspelled. And they're all examples of the most devilish type of spelling demon: the false friend. False friends are words that should contain familiar words, but don't. You would assume, for instance, that the word for the operator of a restaurant would contain the word "restaurant." In fact, the innkeeper is not an "n" keeper. He or she is a "restaurateur." Likewise, the word for an inflammation of the tendon contains no "tendon" ("tendinitis")

If You Build Homes, They Will Come The April 28 editorial "Cranes And Scaffolds" was much at odds with the equally excellent Commentary articles of April 21, "The Myth Of `Comeback Cities."' In essence, the April 21 articles demonstrated that edifices and ballparks never succeed in creating born-again cities. Hartford needs residents, not transients. The most laggard of the scaffold projects is housing. Yet housing works. Bring in families, and hairdressers, cafes, mini-malls and newsstands follow.

LinkedIn has a lot of people talking with its new mobile job application feature, where you can actually apply for some jobs right from your phone. Listings that allow this feature are dependent on your LinkedIn profile to provide the necessary information in lieu of an attached resume or cover letter. While LinkedIn explains that you get the option to edit your profile right on the app before applying, you should probably have that taken care of before you reach this point. Here are some tips to keep in mind before you apply to increase your chances of being contacted for an interview.